A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement

The fascination with crime, hastily described by some as a symptom of moral degradation of Western culture, seems to be a defence mechanism used by individuals to deal with social transgressions and anomalies represented by serious crimes. The aim of this article is to analyse the growing popularity of true crime through the lens of Mary Douglas’s theory of purity and pollution, with a particular emphasis on the methods of dealing with anomalies appearing within conceptual schemata of a given culture. For this purpose, the text has been divided into four parts: the first part briefly presents the history of true crime; the second part analyses the idea of murder through the lens of Douglas’s theory; the third part discusses the reasons behind the popularity of true crime narratives; and the fourth part showcases how individuals use true crime stories as tools to deal with anomalies.

Feminist humour’s disruptive potential: Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood and Rupi Kaur’s ‘I’m taking back my body’

Using Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood and Rupi Kaur’s TEDxKC performance, ‘I’m taking back my body’, as case studies, this article examines how feminist humour is used by celebrities and public intellectuals to tell personal stories of oppression, trauma and inequality. Building on humour theory, feminist humour theory and affect theory, this article examines the potential of feminist humour as a rhetorical device to help storytellers tell difficult stories, to engage in acts of community-building and world-making, to challenge social inequalities and to enable social change. Ultimately, this article asks what we can learn from these examples, and how we can employ feminist humour in our own storytelling practices not only to disrupt power relations and establish solidarity, but also to imagine new, more equitable, worlds.

Role of Producers in Giving Awareness and Treating Reenacted Crime Stories in Pakistani TV Channels

This research study explains the “Role of producers in giving awareness and treating reenacted crime stories in Pakistani TV Channels” and how is awareness given and crime being treated by using camera angles, animation, indoor & outdoor sets and props by the producers. Study is based on the notion of awareness regarding crimes and reenacted crime shows and role of producers during production of any program. Research study analyzed content of program to monitor the agenda of crime shows. Two methodologies of research quantitative and qualitative by using method of content analysis and framing analysis has been used in study. Data was collected by analyzing content of programs and observing the production techniques which used in reenactment crime shows. Study discussed production elements of shows that play significant role to set agenda of sensationalism & exaggeration of crimes among viewers.

Smart Crime Tourism as Multilayered Cultural Encounters: Exploring Aarhus via Locative Media and Crime Narratives

This article investigates the trend of smartphone-enabled screen tourism based on the findings from practice-based research carried out during the development and testing of the locative screen tourism experience ‘DETECt Aarhus’. This work shows how smart screen tourism can facilitate multilayered cultural encounters because it can provide a multifaceted perspective on locations and can motivate people to explore local culture. App-guided tours enable the embodied and emotional experiences of traditional screen tourism, but in a more flexible way that eases the crossing of thresholds between the material space and fictional places of crime stories. The testing of the DETECt Aarhus app’s pilot version further highlighted that popular crime narratives and smart tourism technology can address a broader group beyond fans of specific crime media. In addition, visitors with no previous connection to (local) crime stories can use apps to encounter the destination as a material space, fictional place and site of cultural production.

Testaments of Resistance and Resilience: An Analysis of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Where there is Oppression, there is going to be resistance. This is the story of almost every Independence struggle history has ever seen. Such was also the story of one the most shocking and horrendous tale of oppression the world has come to know, the apartheid system of South Africa. It was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that divided the whites and blacks living in South Africa, which gave the former full rights to enjoy all the privileges that the natives ought to enjoy rightfully, depriving the latter of every good thing the country had to offer. This paper will attempt to throw some light on the whole system by analysing a work of art not written by an outsider, but through the eyes of a person who was born into it and saw apartheid for what it was and what it did to the blacks living in South Africa. It is a memoir written by South African comedian Trevor Noah titled Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, an autobiographical work published in the year 2016 where Noah narrates instances from his childhood living in post-apartheid South Africa. The book is a kind of dedication to Noah’s mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, a symbol of resistance. Patricia Noah broke almost every rule imposed by the White government, from having a good education and moving in to a house in a white neighbourhood to having a relationship with a white person resulting in giving birth to child of mixed race, a crime for which the punishment was death. The paper will attempt to bring out the struggles and tales of resilience of the black people under apartheid by analysing the experiences of the Noah Family with special emphasis on Patricia Noah who can be seen as an embodiment of Resistance, resilience and above all sheer stubbornness to comply with the rules of the colonizers.

Humor som bro eller hinder: Islam i två norska filmkomedier

Since the turn of the millennium, characters identified as Muslims have become more common in Nordic film productions. While these characters are predominantly found in dramas or crime stories, they also appear in a number of comedies. This chapter explores how Islamic religious beliefs, practices and characters are presented in two Norwegian comedies. Specific focus is on how two different comedic genres – the romantic comedy and the teen comedy – shape how Islam is represented, as well as how Muslim characters and experiences of being a Muslim in a Scandinavian country today shape and challenge traditional narratives, structures and perspectives in comedy. Special attention is given to aspects of gender, ethnic humour and affect. The author argues that the films uphold certain stereotypes but also contest ideas relating to the «other» and contemporary Scandinavian identities.